The New Normal

Ruby is one month old today!

We are starting to get back to what I consider a "new normal"... it kind of looks like our old life, but, you know, it's different. There's a lot less sleep involved, and more planning around a baby's eating schedule.

Also, we get way more excited about poo than we ever did before.

We've been venturing out and running lots of errands and doing some shopping here and there in the area.

One visit we made was to A Child's Garden in Northampton for the babywearing drop-in hours (Wednesdays 4-6pm), to learn how to properly use our Moby wrap.

It was great! Meg Eisenhauer Barry, the Babywearing Educator, explained everything and showed us how to use our wrap, and we are completely set. And in love with it! What a great service this store offers.

We have so many other stops to make... I've got my eye on multiple groups at Cooley Dickinson Hospital, like Beyond Birth and their weekly Breastfeeding Clinic, as well as various baby and Mama (and Papa!) classes and meetup groups in the area.

Aside from baby stuff, we also have to get started on gardening... we are desperate to plant our own vegetable garden, so we need to research and start that ASAP. In the meantime, we begin our weekly pickups at Mountain View Farm CSA tomorrow, so that's a new and exciting experience for us, too!

Finally, we are looking forward to my in-laws, Ruby's grandparents, coming from the Czech Republic next week... they are staying with us for 3 months! Wow! We're very excited, as we get along splendidly, and I'm sure it will be a blast since I'll have help, and they'll spend the time with their first grandchild.

Off to run more errands now...

Born!

Ruby Florene, born May 1, 2010, 7:54am. 8lbs 11.2oz 19 1/2".
Completely au naturale!

Birth story and details to follow...

The Nursery!

Since I finally figured out how to do an inspiration board (or whatever they're called, these boards that all the interior design websites do nowadays), here's one I've put together for our daughter's nursery!

I'll first mention that we're not going with a theme per se, except to have a room where an imagination can grow. It's a room for a kid, so I think the most appropriate things to have are color, fantasy and fun.

Some things to consider: the picture of the crib is the only one online I can find, and it's lovely with the bedding but obviously that's not the bedding we'll be using. Instead our bedding is from Target, and pictured there to the right of the crib. We're registering for individual sheets and blankets, so it's kind of a mish-mash.

I also was unable to picture some Etsy pictures and wall decals that I've had my eye on, so I'll include some links to those below.

Finally, I want to mention that three walls of the nursery are Behr's Grass Cloth (Green), and the one large wall is Behr's Clear Water (Blue).

Star Wall Decals 1 & Star Wall Decals 2
Tree Picture

Ruby's Nursery by ivyreb on Polyvore.com

Items in this set:
toy Classic Sock Monkey by Patina Store, $19
IKEA | Förvaringsmöbler | Byråer | HEMNES | Byrå med 3 lådor, $199
Boppy Nursing Pillow with Slipcover - Lots of Dots : Target, $35
Cracker Barrel: Rocking Chairs: Ready-to-AssembleClassic Adult...
Circo® Baby Blanket - Stars : Target, $13

The Answer!

It's a GIRL!!

We are thrilled that we will be welcoming a little girl into our lives this coming May.

Baby Boy or Baby Girl??

Tomorrow we have our anatomy scan ultrasound, where we'll find out if we're having a girl or a boy!! Hooray!

Our plan is to have the tech write it down and put it in an envelope. Then we'll go someplace private and open it, just husband and me, and find out what we'll be having.

Can't wait!!

Pregnancy Picture - 17 Weeks

The last picture was at 14 weeks (10/28/09) and looked like this:



My most recent (and impressive!) picture was taken Thanksgiving (11/26/09). I am about 17.5 weeks here:

Crib Madness!

If you remember from an earlier post, there was a time, a while back, when I was a bit obsessed about what crib we would buy.

Finally my mother sent me an email with a link to a crib that she saw when visiting Albee Baby in NYC, up the block from her apartment.

She said it was nice and came in different finishes, and seemed tall enough for me, etc etc. I looked up the stats on Consumer Reports and it was ranked super high for safety and all that. Although I hadn't seen it in person, my mom had, and that was good enough for me. So I ordered that sucker!

This is good that I've moved past the crib madness, because yesterday there was a giant recall affecting something like 2 million Stork Craft cribs, and today there's a big piece in the Chicago Tribune about the dangers of drop-side cribs (remember I mentioned that?).

And here's the crazy part - we got the crib four days later! I heard that it could take up to 15 weeks, especially because the finish we wanted was all special order. But, no...four days! So now it's sitting in the garage, waiting for us to paint the nursery and then put it together.

Here's a link to the Albee Baby site that lists price and all the details. And here's picture of the crib in the finish we went with (Chestnut).

It Worked!

We heard the heartbeat! Hooray! Friday the 13th is officially our lucky day, I guess.

It was amazing, of course, to hear the heartbeat, especially when I'd talked myself into the idea that we'd never hear it. What was also amazing was hearing several "blurps!" which was the baby moving! Our midwife told us we have a very active baby, just as the ultrasound tech told us last time we were there and saw the baby swimming and dancing around. 16 weeks tomorrow, I guess it's just a matter of before I feel those movements firsthand!

Total Eclipse of the Heart(beat)?

We're leaving in 10 minutes for another appointment where we will attempt to hear this baby's heartbeat...

here's hoping he/she cooperates this time!

Our First Baby Purchase!

After our midwife appointment last week, we went shopping!

I thought it would be great for Andy (my awesome husband) to pick out a little something - our first little something! - for the baby.

After all, I know I'm pregnant because I am the one who goes back and forth between feeling fat, grossly nauseous and amazingly awesome due to the little bugger in me. I'm aware of it constantly.

But Andy, the poor guy, he only knows I'm pregnant because I tell him I am. Sure, we have a couple ultrasound pictures, but he's kind of removed from the whole thing.

So, the idea for him to be the one to pick out a nice little thang for our sweet baby.

Of course, we don't know the gender yet, but we found a super cute unisex onesie at Essentials in Northampton that cost wayyy too much, and is way too cute. Since it's our first purchase, we thought we'd splurge. (And never again spend $35 on a onesie!!)